THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

IV. HIS PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE.

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ST. LUKE ii. 25-32.

"And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child 'Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

THERE are two considerations which commend the inspired Song of Simeon here recorded to our special attention: the one, that it has been most appropriately given a place in the daily service of our Church as one of the Evening Hymns or Canticles; and not of our Church only but also in the services of all Christian Churches in the world, Greek, Roman, and Reformed: the other, that the occasion of it is comI See Wheatly, Com. Prayer, in loco.

memorated annually by one of our Festivals, (as on this day,') for which it is the appointed Gospel, namely, 'The Presentation of Christ in the Temple;' which, it may be remarked, though commonly called "The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,' from that ceremony having taken place at the same time, is really one of the Festivals relating to our Lord and designed to celebrate this the next recorded event of His Life after His Circumcision; as also appears from the Collect and Epistle which refer to it exclusively.

We shall first consider the Song itself, with the circumstances under which it was uttered; after which we shall see its suitability to ourselves and the sense in which we now adopt its language.

I. The occasion, as we are informed ver. 22-24, was the Presentation to the Lord of the Infant Jesus, in conformity with a Law which commanded that every first-born male of the children of Israel should be holy or dedicated to Him; in remembrance of and gratitude for the preservation of that people from the last and most awful of the judgments inflicted on their oppressors the Egyptians, on the night of the Exodus, when the destroying angel passed through the land and slew the first-born of every family.

But in Christ's instance this ordinance, as well as 1 Feby. 2d.

His Circumcision, had an import which it had in no other: for, while others celebrated in it their redemption, He was the Redeemer; He was the very Paschal Lamb the blood of which, sprinkled on the door-posts of the Israelites' houses on that memorable night, was the token for the Lord to "pass-over" them and not suffer the destroyer to enter. In addition to which, we must remember, it was His first appearing in the Temple: in that Temple where for hundreds of years His coming and His offering of Himself as a sacrifice for sin had been typified day by day, morning and evening; and in whom its every ordinance and service was to have its end, its substance, and accomplishment: the scope and significance of all its worship,-at once the Sacrifice and the Priest by whom it was offered—the “Tabernacle" and the "glory" which it enshrined.

Accordingly, God had provided that an Event of such great moment and such intense interest should not pass without a testimony to signalize it and declare this its high import. The crowd, indeed, frequenting the Temple saw nothing in it but the compliance with an ordinary custom on the part of an Infant whose mother was so humble in station as to be obliged to avail herself of the offering, on her purification, appointed for the poor-"a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons" instead of a lamb:

(compare ver. 24 with Lev. xii. 8.) But there were those at the time "who looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (ver. 38), and one of them the Lord had prepared by a special revelation to be His witness on the occasion, as we read ver. 25,-"And, behold, "there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was "Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, "waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy "Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto "him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ:"— (a distinction conferred on him, doubtless, in reward for his faith which, it would appear, had been much tried by the deferring of his hope; till, now advanced in years, he began to despair of seeing it realized): "And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and "when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do "for him after the custom of the law, then took he "him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, "according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen "thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the "face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, "and the glory of thy people Israel."

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Here then, in this inspired testimony to the Infant Jesus, we observe

1. First,―The designation given Him, The Salvation of God: "Mine eyes have seen THY SALVATION :" "The Lord's Christ" as he had been previously named to Simeon, (ver. 26): The Saviour of God's appointment-" which Thou hast prepared"

a testimony remarkably similar to that borne on His after-manifestation to Israel, and also by a witness specially commissioned and inspired for the occasion -that, namely, of the Baptist on the Saviour's first appearing in public, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world:"-"The Lamb of God," of His providing. A Truth thus prominently put forward because of its inestimable importance; inasmuch as it is in fact at once the evidence of the sufficiency of this "salvation," and the warrant of our faith and hope in Him who is the Author of it. "Whom-as St. Paul states the same truth-God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood," (Rom. iii. 25): the warrant of "faith" (I say) this not only the suitability or intrinsic worth (as far as we are capable of judging) of the "propitiation;" but, altogether irrespective of this--the fact that He is "set forth," according to the purpose of God, "to be a propitiation." Without this sanction it should be evident that no way of salvation, no means of effecting our reconciliation to God, no 2 Compare Ephes. i. 9. Gr.

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